The Green Economy Workshop Series (offered through the Green Institute at Heartland Community College) is designed to educate and promote sustainable business practices.

The series is open to all Illinois-based businesses interested in greening their current workplace, promoting sustainability within the workforce and the community it serves and reducing its environmental footprint. Adopting green practices can not only increase efficiency which saves the company on operating costs, but also can increase revenue based on a positive consumer opinion of environmental stewardship. Sign up for all three workshops for only $180 ($90 after rebate*)!

GETTING READY TO GROW WITH THE GREEN ECONOMY

The green economy is expected to contribute billions of dollars and generate millions of jobs in the coming decades. Wondering how to tap into the emerging green sector? This course is designed to help participants understand the dynamics of the green economy and prepare themselves to grow with the emerging green sector.

Topics include:

• Developing green industries

• Turning existing assets and potential liabilities into opportunities

• Making existing products, processes and services more sustainable

• Understanding governmental policies and initiatives

This course is offered through the Delta Institute, a Chicago based non-profit that is dedicated to supporting the transformation to the green economy.

PROFDVLP 1461 Sec. A
Wednesday 7/28
8:00AM-12:00PM
HCC WDC Rm 1400
$90 ($45 after rebate)
(includes text & breakfast)

GO GREEN AND SAVE MONEY: FISCALLY SOUND GREEN BUSINESS PRACTICES

Save money and improve your organization’s environmental performance through green business practices.

Topics include:

• Greening the office

• Green purchasing

• Activity-based cost accounting

• Greening the supply chain

• Recycling

• Green cleaning/janitorial practices

Energy efficiency opportunities associated with common office functions, such as:

• Heating/air conditioning

• Electronic devices

• Appliances

• Lighting

This course is offered through the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, a division of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois.

PROFDVLP 1462 Sec. A
Wednesday 8/25
8:00AM-12:00PM
HCC ACEC Rm 2102
$90 ($45 after rebate)
(includes text & breakfast)

GREEN PERFORMANCE THROUGH WASTE MINIMIZATION

Improve your competitiveness through better materials use. Participants will learn how to identify process losses and potential efficiency improvements in packaging, industrial parts and facilities cleaning, fluids purification, water use minimization and purification, and construction activities.

Topics include:

• Best management practices and technologies to improve performance

• Pollution prevention

• Recycling

• Green process development

• Improving the value of by-products

This course is offered through the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, a division of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois.

PROFDVLP 1463 Sec. A
Wednesday 9/22
8:00AM-12:00PM
HCC ACEC Rm 2102
$90 ($45 after rebate)
(includes text & breakfast)

*Receive a 50 percent rebate from the Green Workforce Training Program:

What is the Green Workforce Training (GWT) Program?

GWT is a reimbursement program, providing up to 50 percent of training costs back to employers when they pay for workers to go through training related to green workplace initiatives or services. GWT is funded through the DCEO-ARRA 2009 Workforce Investment Act Sector Based Initiative.

Which employers are eligible for reimbursement as part of the GWT Program?

Large, medium and small businesses, local governments, governmental agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and collective bargaining units funding training for currently employed workers.

For more information about rebates available through the Green Workforce Training Program, contact Rebecca Rossi at 309-268-8402 or Rebecca.Rossi@heartland.edu.

About the Green Institute:
The Green Institute provides education and information to businesses and residents about energy efficiency, renewable energy, recycling, retrocommissioning and other environmental technologies.

This video is Tim Norman’s testimony before the House of Representatives Small Business Committee on Wednesday, May26, 2010. Mr. Norman was invited by Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson to speak as a “small business hero” representing the 11th District in Illinois in honor of National Small Business Week. He is the CEO of STL Technology Partners in Bloomington (an EDC investor, as well as a participant in the EDC’s 2010 One Voice trip). Congratulations to Tim for this great honor!

Congresswoman Halvorson and Tim and Katie Norman were also featured on the EDC’s BNBiz Show on Tuesday, May 25 to discuss their expectations about this hearing. Click here to listen to the podcast of the interview.

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Press release from Congresswoman Halvorson’s office:

Local Small Business Owner Testifies in DC on Access to Capital, SBA Assistance

Tim Norman, Bloomington, IL: “The SBA 504 loan program, with the re-finance option, allowed us to re-capitalize our business.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Highlighting ways the Small Business Administration is able to assist small business owners looking to expand their business, Rep. Debbie Halvorson invited Tim Norman, a Bloomington small business owner to testify before the House Committee on Small Business yesterday on how the SBA helped his small business grow during the recession.

Tim Norman and his wife Katie own and operate a small business called STL Technology Partners, which specializes in computer repair and information technology services. Norman offered testimony about his work with SBA financing. Halvorson followed Norman’s testimony with a question and answer session regarding making the SBA more user-friendly to small business owners.

“Over the 19 years STL has been in business, we have seen two recessions, and undergone a number of corporate changes in order to remain aligned with our clients’ goals and needs,” said Tim Norman in his testimony. “At first, we were not pursuing the use of the loan through the SBA, but as the economy started to turn, it became more and more essential for us to secure the government financing. As we grow, we will definitely be looking at additional SBA loan programs we can leverage to create more jobs and expand our business.”

“We have seen progress in putting our economy back on track so far this year, but if we are going to keep that progress going, we need to give our small businesses the resources they need to create jobs, and that means increasing access to capital,” said Halvorson. “But we also want to make sure small business owners understand the resources that are already available to them, which is why I invited Tim and Katie to DC, to talk about their company and their interaction with the Small Business Administration during National Small Business Week. They’re truly small business heroes, and their story gives me great encouragement that we’re on a path towards economic recovery.”

During his testimony at the House Small Business Committee’s “Small Business Heroes” hearing, Norman spoke about STL’s recent period of growth. “We’ve put to work over 150 people in the last two and a half months, throughout the Midwest… So we are trying to use it [SBA financing] as an advantage to get moving and get growing because now is the time to grow.”

Norman also told a story of a friend who serves in the military and who was leaving to serve overseas. Norman said that he told his friend, “I feel we need to do something. I respect you for what you’re doing in the services you’re offering our nation.” Norman continued, “And he looked at me and he said, Tim I want to tell you something – we’ll defend this country, you create jobs. And that’s what we’re doing.”

As a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Halvorson has worked to introduce and pass legislation to increase access to capital for small businesses. Fighting to increase SBA loan sizes and extend short-term business stabilization loans, Halvorson introduced HR 3723, the Small Business Credit Expansion and Loan Markets Stabilization Act, and has worked to pass HR 4311, the Bonus Depreciation and Enhanced Expensing for Small Businesses Extension Act, which increases incentives for businesses to make new capital investments.

For more information about Congresswoman Halvorson’s efforts to empower small businesses and create jobs, visit the Congresswoman’s website by clicking here. To view small business assistance available though the Congresswoman’s office, click here.

Video of the question and answer panel including Halvorson and Norman can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIFUC-I6RTI

Photo Credit: Kristie Baxter, US House of Representatives Photographer.

The City of Bloomington is proposing to cut its investment in the Economic Development Council by 20 percent. Instead of the $80,000 pledged annually in 2006, the proposed reduction will bring the total annual investment down to $64,000. They will be voting on this proposal at their April 12th meeting. (UPDATE: As of 4/6/10, the Bloomington City Council is now considering a 10 percent reduction instead of 20 percent, bringing their annual investment to $72,000. While a 10 percent cut is better than a 20 percent cut, the Economic Development Council still feels this hurts the future growth of the community and breaks the public-private partnership originally entered into between Bloomington, Normal, McLean County and several private investors. Read on to learn why.)

The Executive Committee of the Economic Development Council has taken the stance that any cut by local government goes against the spirit of the public-private partnership entered in 2006 between the City of Bloomington, Town of Normal and McLean County, as well as dozens of private sector companies that made similar five-year pledges. The reason the “public-private partnership” works is that everyone pledges their fair share and participates in the future of McLean County. Each investor pledges with the knowledge that the other investors are sharing in the burden of making this community more prosperous.

In June of 2009, some members of the City Council suggested the EDC offer a “symbolic” cut due to the financial problems the City was having. Some City Council members have suggested the EDC “feel the pain” as other organizations, agencies and city departments have felt. The EDC agreed that a cut would be symbolic, but not in the way that was being suggested. A cut by the City of Bloomington breaks the bond of trust and agreement all the investors have entered into. If a cut were implemented, what prevents others investors, public and private, from doing the same? Should the EDC not also offer this symbolic cut to the Town of Normal? To McLean County? To the other 97 investors who fund the EDC?

The EDC has already reduced spending and eliminated two of our seven staff positions in response to a reduction in funding because a few private sector investors have been unable to fulfill their pledge commitments over the past couple years due to the economic hardships their businesses have faced. We are at present down to the bare minimum it takes to operate an effective economic development organization in a community our size. With hard work by our employees and effective use of our time, combined with some grant funding for specific programs, we are still able to provide quality economic development programming. However, continued erosion of our base funding would put our future effectiveness into serious jeopardy.

We recognize and empathize with the difficulties faced by the City of Bloomington and other businesses in regards to reduced revenue due to the recession. However, economic development cannot and should not be treated like a water faucet—turned on and off when convenient. In fact, there is strong evidence that additional investment in economic development is necessary when there is a downturn in the local economy. It has taken us five years to get the current economic development program up to competitive levels with other communities; to cut funding today will only push us – and the future economic performance of McLean County – backwards.

The City’s proposed cut of $16,000 (20 percent) of their annual investment in the EDC represents a tiny fraction of the City’s $68 million budget. The cut, however, is not strategic. Bloomington’s administrators have lumped the 20 percent cut in our program with other semi-related programs such as the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Downtown Bloomington Association. The difference between the EDC and these organizations is that neither the DBA nor the CVB depend on an intermeshed matrix of equally-committed stakeholders like the EDC does. The CVB receives all of their City funding from a specific source – the hotel/motel tax – and the DBA is almost wholly dependent on the City for its funding. While Bloomington’s total investment comprises only 13 percent of the EDC’s total budget, it represents a commitment beyond mere dollars. Like load-bearing bricks in a supporting structure, Bloomington’s investment is dependent upon other investments, and other investments are dependent upon Bloomington’s.

Now is not the time to weaken the structure of economic development in our community. Please let the City know that further cuts and reneging on their pledge is not acceptable. Yes, many municipalities and businesses are suffering from economic downturn, but what kind of message is the City sending when they quit investing in the one thing that can assure a greater future for their citizens? Maintaining an investment in the EDC sends the message that Bloomington cares about the community and wants to see it prosper. It shows that Bloomington wants to see new jobs and new capital investment; they want to see new entrepreneurs given a head start; they want to see federal tax dollars returning to the community; they want to see companies expand; they want to see new wind farms and a cleaner, healthier community; they want to see access to capital and micro-enterprise prosper. This is the message that should be sent, and this is the pledge that must be fulfilled.

Please call or email a Bloomington City Council member today, and let him/her know, using the information above, why Bloomington’s investment in the EDC is so important. Thank you.

So many of us sit on the sidelines and watch the world go by - ”Let someone else take care of things, not me.” While we may not come right out and say it, we sure think it. I once worked in a community where a friend of mine who knew that I worked in a city hall that had its share of drama and intrigue asked me, “How can you work down there with all that rabble?” - no doubt, referring to the elected and appointed officials with whom I spent my days and many late evenings. And, indeed, in this case they were a loutish sort, filled with vim, vigor and ego. I would not deny his characterization of this group; however, I took offense to his disdain for my participation.

To be clear, I was paid for my participation with the “rabble,” but I answered him with, “I am partnered and work with the rabble because you are not there.”  In other words, this fine man (who happened to be a college graduate with a good degree, but more importantly, with or without an education he was generally agreeable, curious and logical)  did not find it worth his time to participate in his community, but felt he could call them a pejorative name and discredit my professional choice of work environment at the same time. Imagine that!

My plea to you is that the world is not going to get better with all of you sitting on the sidelines. The community and its improvement is a participation sport. In fact, the EDC offers an easy way to participate in something we can all agree on and in which we can participate: our economy. The EDC works to help the community prosper. We do this through the resources provided to us by investors, public and private.  If you want to participate in your community, call City Hall and ask to get on a commission or committee, and call the EDC and invest some of your dollars in long-term growth. We use our funds efficiently, we have outstanding programs, we can offer you businesses and organizations that can tell you we have helped them…and we offer no “rabble” whatsoever.